Jones Day Snags Five Supreme Court Clerks

United States

11/30/2017

Bloomberg Law

Jones Day hired five U.S. Supreme Court clerks from the 2016 term to join its appellate practice, the firm announced Nov. 29.

The move further cements the firm’s reputation as a top employer for Supreme Court clerks. The hires represent almost 15 percent of the term’s 34 clerks.
Jones Day has hired 36 Supreme Court clerks in the past five years, the firm said.

Some other big law firms that typically jockey for Supreme Court clerks include Kirkland & Ellis, Jenner & Block and Williams & Connolly, Joe Patrice, an editor at the legal blog Above the Law, which covers clerkships and hiring, told Bloomberg Law.

Competition is fierce and signing bonuses can exceed $300,000. Firms compete for these clerks because they’ve “unlocked every achievement,” from going to a top law school, to clerking for a federal appellate judge, to clerking at the Supreme Court, Patrice said.

Jones Day declined to provide information to Bloomberg Law about the amount of its signing bonus for Supreme Court clerks.

Wilkinson Walsh + Eskovitz, a Washington D.C.-based boutique litigation firm, paid signing bonuses of $350,000 to two Supreme Court clerks who started this fall, Alexandra Walsh, one of the firm’s founding members, told Bloomberg Law in an email Nov. 27.

Jenner & Block hired Benjamin M. Eidelson, who clerked for Kagan in the 2016 term, bringing to six the number of Supreme Court clerks hired there in the past five years.

The other five clerks include Kendall Turner who clerked for Breyer in the 2014 term; Will Dreher who clerked for Kagan in the 2014 term; Devi M. Rao who clerked for Ginsburg in the 2013 term; Zachary C. Schauf who clerked for Kagan in the 2012 term; and Ishan K. Bhabha who clerked for Kennedy in the 2011 term.

Williams & Connolly hasn’t hired any Supreme Court clerks from the 2016 term, P. Jeanne Brown, the firm’s director of marketing, business development and client relations, told Bloomberg Law in a Nov. 28 email.

Since 2012, the firm has hired four former Supreme Court clerks: Amy Mason Saharia who clerked for Justice Sonia Sotomayor in the 2010 term; Luke McCloud who clerked for Sotomayor in the 2014 term; Matthew B. Nicholson who clerked for Thomas in the 2011 term; and Katherine Moran Meeks who clerked for Kennedy in the 2013 term, Brown said in the email.